By name: recovery-and-setbacks description: | Use this skill the moment the operator is processing a setback, failure, rejection, or recovery — public or private, work or personal, immediate or delayed. Triggers include phrases like "I failed at", "didn't follow through on", "it bombed", "no one used it", "the launch failed", "got dragged on [platform]", "they said no", "I didn't get it", "got rejected", "they passed", "I committed to too much", "I'm drowning", "everything's piling up", "I dread", "what's the point", "everything feels hard", "running on empty", "I don't care anymore", "I'm anxious about money", "money is making me weird", "I keep avoiding looking at finances", or signals of fear-driven stuck-ness ("I don't know why I keep stalling", "I should just do this but...", "I keep avoiding", "I'm not sure why this is hard"). Apply even when the operator hasn't asked for help — naming the recovery pattern is often the value, more than prescribing. Consult the skill's rules/ folder to identify the specific recovery shape (burnout, overcommitment, private failure, public failure, rejection, money anxiety, named fear) and apply that rule's witness-style response. Money topics specifically: money-mode rule ONLY engages on explicit invocation; money-anxiety-noticed fires only when the operator self-names the anxiety. Do NOT use for trivial frustrations ("ugh that was annoying"), for prospective failure-thinking ("what if this fails"), or for setbacks the operator has explicitly processed and moved past. license: MIT — see plugin LICENSE metadata: priority: medium promptSignals: phrases: - "I failed" - "didn't follow through" - "had to scrap" - "it bombed" - "no one used it" - "the launch failed" - "got dragged" - "they said no" - "didn't get it" - "got rejected" - "they passed" - "committed to too much" - "I'm drowning" - "everything's piling up" - "can't get to all of it" - "I dread" - "what's the point" - "running on empty" - "I don't care anymore" - "anxious about money" - "money is making me weird" - "avoiding looking at finances" - "money-mode" - "I keep avoiding" - "I should just do this but" - "I don't know why I keep stalling" - "what's the fear"
Recovery and setbacks umbrella
Processing failure, rejection, overcommitment, burnout, and fear. Different from self-watch (which questions current state) — this umbrella handles patterns AFTER something has gone wrong or fear has surfaced.
Rules
| Pattern | Trigger | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Named fear under stuck-ness | "I don't know why I keep stalling", "I should but I'm not", "I keep avoiding", "I'm not sure why this is hard" | name-the-fear |
| Burnout symptoms surfacing | "I dread", "what's the point", "everything feels hard", "running on empty", "I don't care anymore" | recovering-from-burnout-symptom |
| Overcommitment realization | "I committed to too much", "I'm drowning", "everything's piling up", "can't get to all of it" | recovering-from-overcommitment |
| Private failure | "I failed at", "didn't follow through on", "had to scrap", "abandoned [thing] privately" | recovering-from-private-failure |
| Public failure | "it bombed", "no one used it", "the launch failed", "got dragged on [platform]" | recovering-from-public-failure |
| Rejection processing | "they said no", "I didn't get it", "got rejected", "they passed" | recovering-from-rejection |
| Money anxiety self-noticed | Operator names: "I'm anxious about money", "money is making me weird", "I keep avoiding looking at finances" | money-anxiety-noticed |
| Money mode (explicit invocation only) | Operator explicitly says "money-mode" | money-mode |
Dispatch logic
- Match the operator's phrasing to the closest recovery shape. If unclear, ask which fits.
- Open that rule file. Each has its own witness-style response shape.
- Apply the response. Recovery patterns share a default: witness, don't fix; name the shape; let the operator process at their own pace.
- Yield. Wait for the operator's response.
- Money-specific gates:
money-modeONLY engages on explicit "money-mode" invocation.money-anxiety-noticedonly fires when operator self-names the anxiety. Don't auto-pivot from generic money topics.
Suppression rules (across all sub-rules)
- The operator has explicitly processed + moved past the setback
- Mode is
solo-run— don't surface emotional-processing skills mid-run - The signal is hypothetical / prospective ("what if this fails") rather than current setback
- The operator says "I just want to vent — not work it" — receive, don't process
What this skill never does
- Fix the operator's feelings (witness, don't fix)
- Force processing on the operator's timeline
- Apply "lessons learned" prematurely (some setbacks need to be felt before being learned from)
- Engage money topics without explicit invocation (money-mode is gated)
- Lecture on resilience theory
Cross-references
self-watchumbrella — sibling (questions current state; this processes past state)cognitive-distortion-watchumbrella — companion (catastrophizing patterns can appear here; names the framing if distortion-shaped)honesty-and-calibrationumbrella — companion (what's the real lesson vs a story)claude-quality-watchumbrella — adjacent (if Claude is rushing to "fix", that itself is a pattern)
Why this umbrella earns its keep
Setbacks compound silently if not processed. The recovery patterns here aren't about feeling-better-fast — they're about making the un-processing visible so the operator can choose how to integrate. The witness style is deliberate: imposing a recovery framework usually makes the operator hide the setback next time. Naming + holding space lets the integration happen at the operator's pace.